02.03.32 Student Liability Insurance Incident Reporting

01. POLICY

01.01             Students participating in clinical education/internship requirements must report deviations from expected practice (adverse events and incidents) in which they are involved.

01.02             Adverse events are defined as an event in which care resulted in an unintended clinical outcome, an outcome not caused by underlying disease that prolonged the patient stay, caused permanent patient harm, required life-saving intervention, or contributed to death (U.S Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General).

01.03             Incidents are defined as a work-related event in which an injury or ill-health (regardless of severity or fatality occurred, or could have occurred (Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Incident (Accident) Investigations: A Guide for Employers, 2015)

02. PROCEDURE

02.01             Students will be informed prior to each clinical/internship enrollment that they must immediately report any adverse event and incident in which they are involved. Adverse events and incidents will be reported on the Adverse Event Report Form (Attachment I) to:

                        a.         Their on-site clinical/internship supervisor,

                        b.        Their University clinical/internship supervisor.

02.02             The University supervisor must notify the department/program chair and the Dean’s office as soon as they are informed of an adverse event or incident and furnish copies of the report from the student to the chair.

02.03             If the student receives notice of a potential claim against them, the student shall within 3 business days from the receipt of such notice, furnish a copy of such notice to their University supervisor who will in turn furnish a copy to the Dean’s office immediately, or within 1 business day of receiving notice.

02.04             In case of a potential claim against the University, the Dean’s office will notify the Texas State University System Office of General Counsel and the insurance carrier, if any, and furnish copies of all documents to both within 3 business days.

02.05             Copies of all correspondence will be maintained in the chair’s office.

02.06             NOTE: All documents related to the adverse event or incident, such as written statements, emails, photos, etc., which are prepared by the student and the on-site supervisors will be furnished to the Student Liability Insurance Carrier.  As documents prepared by students and on-site supervisors may be reviewed by third parties, such as insurance representatives, juries, claimant attorneys, etc., all persons completing such forms should state the facts of an adverse event or incident and not make speculative comments when completing the forms.